Making Home Affordable: Obama’s New Program To Help Homeowners
President Barack Obama has introduced many ideas and programs in efforts to provide guidance and aid to the millions of struggling homeowners in this country. The sub prime mortgage crisis, fueled by the greed and often negligence of the lending industry’s major players has left millions of homeowners facing the worrisome prospect of losing their homes.
On February 18, 2009, President Obama introduced the nation to his housing plan. This plan involves several programs which are designed to help over seven million families potentially facing foreclosure to avoid the grief and stress of a foreclosure by giving them options. These options will include either refinancing or modifying their existing mortgages in hopes of ultimately making those mortgages become affordable and bearable once again. Additionally, Obama’s program intends to reinforce and revitalize the federal government’s commitment to Government Sponsored Entities, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, leaders in the secondary mortgage market.
On March 4, 2009, President Obama’s administration released news and information that detailed the intricacies of the program and provided guidance on the Making Home Affordable Program.
While there are several characteristics and facets of this program, the main points for homeowners to know are listed below.
1. The Home Affordable Refinance Program. Under this program, eligible borrowers may refinance loans that Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac (the government sponsored enterprises, or GSEs) own or guarantee. The program can help homeowner-occupants who are current in making loan payments and have loan-to-value ratios (LTVs) above 80 percent but not more than 105 percent. Cash out refinancings are not permitted. The program ends in June 2010.
2. The Home Affordable Modification Program. This is a $75 billion program with lender, servicer, investor, and borrower incentives to make it work. The program is limited to homeowner-occupants who are at risk of default or already in default and who have loans at or below the maximum GSE conforming loan limit of $729,750 (or higher for 2-, 3-, and 4-unit properties). Loan modifications under the program may be made until December 31, 2012.
3. More Support for the GSEs. President Obama also announced more support for the GSEs, including doubling of potential Treasury investment from $100 billion to $200 billion for each GSE, to maintain their positive net worth. The plan also raises the cap on mortgages that the GSEs may hold in their portfolios by $50 billion to $900 billion.
Ultimately, this program intends to set this country back on the path to growth, profitability and success. Hopefully, with the government’s continued support and diligence on the part of homeowners, we, as a nation, will begin to see the signs of recovery soon.
The National Association of Realtors has a message it would like to get across and that message is that "America needs Fannie and Freddie." Who are these people that we have been hearing a lot about in the news lately? They are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
According to Realtor Frances Martinez who was the speaker representative at a House Financial Services Subcommittee hearing on June 3, 2009, "Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac serve an important role in expanding homeownership and providing a solid foundation for our nation's housing financial system…Unlike private secondary market investors, Fannie and Freddie remain active in housing markets during downturns, using their federal ties to facilitate mortgage finance and support homeownership opportunities for all qualified borrowers."
Fannie and Freddie are government sponsored organizations that basically insure the success of our nation's housing system, the cornerstone of our economy. Fannie and Freddie work to make sure that all Americans have and will continue to have access to the fair and affordable mortgages. Just think, without Fannie and Freddie, when the market crashed, there would have been no alternative and all housing sales would have essentially come to a dead stop and this would have thrown our country into a deeper economic crisis.
All in all, Fannie and Freddie basically guarantee that there will be a secondary mortgage markets where people can safely and securely buy their homes and achieve the American dream. Getting a mortgage can be a scary thing. Thankfully, we have a country, a government and a system in place to make sure that the days of predatory lending and fraudulent behaviors in the lending industry are behind us.
The Hope for Homeowners program is what is being broadcast as the last hope for America’s Homeowners. Do you have a question about it? Read on for more information and feel free to use the contact information below, to get PERSONALIZED answers to any questions you may have!
As of November 19th, 2008. many changes have been made to the lending system in this country. Primarily, the loan to value ratio (LTV) has been increased from 90% to 96.50% for borrowers whose monthly mortgage payments are no more than 31 percent of their monthly gross income. Next, the process to remove subordinate liens has been simplified. Payments made up front are now allowed to motivate lienholders to give their consent and release the liens; thereby making more borrowers eligible for the program. Also, the terms of financing have been expanded and now incorporate 30 and 40 year amortization schedules, thereby reducing payments amounts.
The "HOPE for Homeowners Act of 2008" creates a new Federal Housing Administration program that will back FHA-insured mortgages to borrowers that are facing problems and stress as a result of their housing situation. New mortgages that will be offered by FHA-approved lenders will encourage and implement the refinancing of abusive, unfair and malicious loans to dramatically improved terms that will allow distressed homeowners who are having difficulty making their mortgage payments some breathing room and enable them to keep their homes and families intact.
If you or anyone you know is facing difficulties when it comes to making their monthly mortgage payments, NOW is the time to act. If you have any questions regarding how this program could work for you, contact us and we will help you starting saving your future today!
Foreclosure Moratorium: Good Thing or Bad Thing?
Today, the news reported that foreclosure figures were down for the month of January. The Riverside and San Bernardino areas of California have been some of the hardest hit areas when it comes to struggling homeowners and foreclosures. Record numbers of defaults and foreclosures have been reported. Press Enterprise reported that there were 17,629 foreclosure-related actions in Riverside and San Bernardino counties in January, according to a report released by RealtyTrac, an Irvine-based firm that markets properties online. That is 8 percent less than December in the two Inland counties but about 40 percent more than January 2008. Recently, mortgage giants, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae imposed a moratorium on foreclosures, effectively barring lenders from foreclosing on any properties.
Although this may sound like a good thing, it may not be. Stopping foreclosures with a moratorium, may not be the answer to our mortgage crisis. Even though the numbers of foreclosures have been reduced, this reduction may not necessarily lead to the solution of the crisis because moratoriums often add costs to the foreclosure process and leave servicers and borrowers with effectively "bigger" bills to pay. Additionally, moratoriums result in impediments on statutorily required actions like sending breach letters, notices of default, and debt accelerations.
Not allowing foreclosures to take place does not save homes where the property has been abandoned, converted and is not profitable, damaged, subject to code violations, and where borrowers may have sufficient income to pay their loans but choose not to because of the moratorium. Delaying foreclosure in these aforementioned cases will not only result in higher costs for servicers and borrowers but will also lead to the deterioration of the properties.
Furthermore, one definite side effect of moratoriums is an increase in the number of delinquencies and defaults. A moratorium essentially motivates the faltering borrower to stop making payments. Borrowers who were once stretching, working more hours, adjusting their lifestyles and even liquidating assets to make their mortgage payments to avoid foreclosure now have no motivation to pay their mortgages. Also, these borrowers will then face an increased risk of never being able to recover from their situations. As more penalties and fees are incurred and increased motivation is provided to stay delinquent, the chances for recovery become increasingly reduced.
Another unintended side effect is the undue pressure that will be put on the servicing companies of these loans. The cost to continue to advance principal, interest, tax and insurances payments during the time that borrowers are not paying will cause severe financial hardships for these companies, especially since they do not own the loans, but merely service them.
Ultimately, while the words sound like they hold the answer to the current crisis we are facing, one must look deeper into the proposed "solution" and truly reveal the impact that this "solution" will have on our society and economy. To further distress already distressed parties, in my opinion, would not present a solution to our crisis. While a moratorium is a good first step, it is only beneficial if we use the time to seek and find other answers to our problems that would result in actual positive results.
